The Study of Figurativeness as a specific Feature of German Symbols
The Study of Figurativeness as a specific Feature of German Symbols

Summary/Abstract: The proposed research is dedicated to the study of German symbols, which are one of the means of verbalization of culturally important information and a way of conceptualizing extralinguistic reality. The paper highlights the philosophical understanding of the term symbol and the stages of its development in linguistics. The central goal of the work is to investigate figurative aspects of German symbols. Within the framework of the research, symbol has been defined as a conventional language sign, whose semantics is formed on the basis of associative rethinking of direct, indirect and connotative meanings of the word and is motivated by the social function of the denoted word. Figurativeness has been defined as the main feature of symbols, as they are compared to allegory, metaphor and metonymy. Differences and similarities between these concepts have been found, and criteria to distinguish symbol from other figurative lexemes have been established.

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